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Gravitational-wave detectors can probe the existence of dark matter with exquisite sensitivity. Here, we perform a search for three kinds of dark matter -- dilatons (spin-0), dark photons (spin-1) and tensor bosons (spin-2) -- using three independent methods on the first part of the most recent data from the fourth observing run of LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA. Each form of dark matter could have interacted with different standard-model particles in the instruments, causing unique differential strains on the interferometers. While we do not find any evidence for a signal, we place the most stringent upper limits to-date on each of these models. For scalars with masses between $[4\times 10^{-14},1.5\times 10^{-13}]$ eV that couple to photons or electrons, our constraints improve upon those from the third observing run by one order of magnitude, with the tightest limit of $\sim 10^{-20}\,\text{GeV}^{-1}$ at a mass of $\sim2\times 10^{-13}\text{ eV}$. For vectors with masses between $[7\times 10^{-13},8.47\times 10^{-12}]$ eV that couple to baryons, our constraints supersede those from MICROSCOPE and Eöt-Wash by one to two orders of magnitude, reaching a minimum of $\sim 5\times 10^{-24}$ at a
The LHCb upgrade represents a major change of the experiment. The detectors have been almost completely renewed to allow running at an instantaneous luminosity five times larger than that of the previous running periods. Readout of all detectors into an all-software trigger is central to the new design, facilitating the reconstruction of events at the maximum LHC interaction rate, and their selection in real time. The experiment's tracking system has been completely upgraded with a new pixel vertex detector, a silicon tracker upstream of the dipole magnet and three scintillating fibre tracking stations downstream of the magnet. The whole photon detection system of the RICH detectors has been renewed and the readout electronics of the calorimeter and muon systems have been fully overhauled. The first stage of the all-software trigger is implemented on a GPU farm. The output of the trigger provides a combination of totally reconstructed physics objects, such as tracks and vertices, ready for final analysis, and of entire events which need further offline reprocessing. This scheme required a complete revision of the computing model and rewriting of the experiment's software.
The discovery of joint sources of high-energy neutrinos and gravitational waves has been a primary target for the LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and IceCube observatories. The joint detection of high-energy neutrinos and gravitational waves would provide insight into cosmic processes, from the dynamics of compact object mergers and stellar collapses to the mechanisms driving relativistic outflows. The joint detection of multiple cosmic messengers can also elevate the significance of the common observation even when some or all of the constituent messengers are sub-threshold, i.e. not significant enough to declare their detection individually. Using data from the LIGO, Virgo, and IceCube observatories, including sub-threshold events, we searched for common sources of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos during the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. Our search did not identify significant joint sources. We derive constraints on the rate densities of joint sources. Our results constrain the isotropic neutrino emission from gravitational-wave sources for very high values of the total energy emitted in neutrinos (> $10^{52} - 10^{54}$ erg).
A measurement of the CKM angle $γ$ and related strong-phase parameters is performed using a novel, model-independent approach in ${B^{\pm}\rightarrow D(\rightarrow K^{0}_{\rm S} h^{\prime+}h^{\prime-}) h^{\pm}}$ decays, where $h^{(\prime)} \equiv π, K$. The analysis uses a joint data sample of electron-positron collisions collected by the BESIII experiment at the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider II during 2010--2011 and 2021--2022, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8 fb$^{-1}$, and proton-proton collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider during 2011--2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb$^{-1}$. The two datasets are analyzed simultaneously by applying per-event weights based on the amplitude variation over the $D$-decay phase space to enhance the sensitivity to $C\!P$-violating observables. The CKM angle $γ$ is determined to be $γ= (71.3\pm 5.0)^{\circ}$, which constitutes the most precise single measurement to date.
On 2023 November 23 the two LIGO observatories both detected GW231123, a gravitational-wave signal consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses $137^{+23}_{-18}\, M_\odot$ and $101^{+22}_{-50}\, M_\odot$ (90\% credible intervals), at luminosity distance 0.7-4.1 Gpc and redshift of $0.40^{+0.27}_{-0.25}$, and a network signal-to-noise ratio of $\sim$20.7. Both black holes exhibit high spins, $0.9^{+0.10}_{-0.19}$ and $0.80^{+0.20}_{-0.52}$ respectively. A massive black hole remnant is supported by an independent ringdown analysis. Some properties of GW231123 are subject to large systematic uncertainties, as indicated by differences in inferred parameters between signal models. The primary black hole lies within or above the theorized mass gap where black holes between 60-130 $M_\odot$ should be rare due to pair instability mechanisms, while the secondary spans the gap. The observation of GW231123 therefore suggests the formation of black holes from channels beyond standard stellar collapse, and that intermediate-mass black holes of mass $\sim$200 $M_\odot$ form through gravitational-wave driven mergers.
Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass $M>70$ $M_\odot$) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities $0 < e \leq 0.3$ at $0.33$ Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^
The Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC) is a collection of short-duration (transient) gravitational-wave signals identified by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration in gravitational-wave data produced by the eponymous detectors. The catalog provides information about the identified candidates, such as the arrival time and amplitude of the signal and properties of the signal's source as inferred from the observational data. GWTC is the release of this dataset and version 5.0 extends the catalog to include observations made during the second part of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run up until 2025 January 28. This paper marks an introduction to a collection of articles related to this version of the catalog, GWTC-5.0. This update significantly increases the number of detected merging binary systems of black holes and neutron stars to over 300, enabling many follow-up studies toward understanding the gravitational-wave universe. The collection of articles accompanying the catalog provides documentation of the methods used to analyze the data, summaries of the catalog of events, observational measurements drawn from the population, and detailed discussions of selected candi
A search for $D^0$ meson decays to the $π^+π^-e^+e^-$ and $K^+K^-e^+e^-$ final states is reported using a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6 fb$^{-1}$. The decay $D^0 \rightarrow π^+π^-e^+e^-$ is observed for the first time when requiring that the two electrons are consistent with coming from the decay of a $φ$ or $ρ^0/ω$ meson. The corresponding branching fractions are measured relative to the $D^0 \rightarrow K^-π^-[e^+e^-]_{ρ^0/ω}$ decay, where the two electrons are consistent with coming from the decay of a $ρ^0$ or $ω$ meson. No evidence is found for the $D^0 \rightarrow K^+K^-e^+e^-$ decay and world-best limits are set on its branching fraction. The results are compared to, and found to be consistent with, the branching fractions of the $D^0 \rightarrow π^+π^-μ^+μ^-$ and $D^0 \rightarrow K^+K^-μ^+μ^-$ decays recently measured by LHCb and confirm lepton universality at the current precision.
The first search for the lepton-flavour violating decays $B^+ \to π^+ μ^{\pm} e^{\mp}$ in proton-proton collisions is presented, using data collected by the LHCb experiment between 2011 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb$^{-1}$. No significant signal is observed and an upper limit on the branching fraction is set at $\mathcal{B}(B^+ \to π^+ μ^{\pm} e^{\mp}) < 1.8 \times 10^{-9}$ at the $90\%$ confidence level, two orders of magnitude more restrictive than the current world average. This is the first constraint on lepton-flavour violating $b \to d$ quark transitions at the LHC and also sets the most stringent upper limits to date on $b \to d μ^{\pm} e^{\mp}$ transitions. Limits on left-handed and scalar scenarios beyond the Standard Model are also reported.
A search for the lepton-flavour violating decay $D^0 \to e^\pm μ^\mp$ is made with a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of $7$ TeV and $8$ TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. Candidate $D^0$ mesons are selected using the decay $D^{*+} \to D^0 π^+$ and the $D^0 \to e^\pm μ^\mp$ branching fraction is measured using the decay mode $D^0 \to K^-π^+$ as a normalisation channel. No significant excess of $D^0 \to e^\pm μ^\mp$ candidates over the expected background is seen, and a limit is set on the branching fraction, $\mathcal{B}(D^0 \to e^\pm μ^\mp) < 1.3 \times 10^{-8}$, at 90 % confidence level. This is an order of magnitude lower than the previous limit and it further constrains the parameter space in some leptoquark models and in supersymmetric models with R-parity violation.
GW240925 and GW250207 are two loud gravitational-wave signals from binary black hole coalescences observed with network signal-to-noise ratios $\sim 32$ and $\sim 69$, respectively, by the LIGO Hanford--LIGO Livingston--Virgo network. Gravitational-wave signals from coalescing binaries have characteristic phase and amplitude evolution predicted by general relativity. These signal waveforms, together with measured instrumental calibration uncertainties, are used to infer source parameters. However, for sufficiently loud detections it is possible to constrain the calibration of the detectors directly using the signals themselves. We present the first informative astrophysical measurements of gravitational-wave detector calibration. For GW240925, we verify the inference of Hanford calibration from the astrophysical signal through cross-checks with known calibration errors obtained from in-situ measurements. At the time of GW250207, the Hanford detector was not fully stabilized, leading to elevated calibration uncertainties; thus, astrophysical calibration is essential to obtain accurate data and to enable source localization. These well-localized, high signal-to-noise observations hav
A measurement of the branching fraction for the decay $\mathitΛ \to p μ^- \overlineν_μ$ is presented using $\textit{pp}$ collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The analysis is based on data recorded between 2016 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.4 \ \text{fb}^{-1}$. The result is obtained using $\mathitΛ \to p π^-$ decays as a normalisation channel. The measured branching fraction is $B(\mathitΛ \to p μ^- \overlineν_μ)= (1.462 \pm 0.016 \pm 0.100 \pm 0.011 ) \times 10^{-4}$, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and due to the limited knowledge of the normalisation mode branching fraction, respectively. This result improves the precision of the branching fraction measurement by a factor of two compared to the previous best measurement and sets a more stringent bound on lepton flavour universality in $s \to u$ quark transitions. It is consistent with previous measurements, and the extracted lepton flavour universality test observable, $R^{μe} = \frac{Γ(\mathitΛ \to p μ^- \overlineν_μ)}{Γ(\mathitΛ \to p e^- \overlineν_e)} = 0.175 \pm 0.012$, agrees with the Standard Model prediction.
The first evidence for the decay $B^+\toπ^+ e^+ e^-$ is reported using proton-proton collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb$^{-1}$. A signal excess with a significance of 3.2$σ$ is observed and the branching fraction is measured to be $\cal{BR}(B^+\toπ^+ e^+ e^-) = (2.4\,{}^{+0.9}_{-0.8} \,{}^{+0.4}_{-0.2}) \times 10^{-8}$, where the first set of uncertainties is statistical and the second is systematic. The result is consistent with the Standard Model expectation.
We present results from directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from a sample of 15 nearby supernova remnants, likely hosting young neutron star candidates, using data from the first eight months of the fourth observing run (O4) of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration. The analysis employs five pipelines: four semi-coherent methods -- the Band-Sampled-Data directed pipeline, Weave and two Viterbi pipelines (single- and dual-harmonic) -- and PyStoch, a cross-correlation-based pipeline. These searches cover wide frequency bands and do not assume prior knowledge of the targets' ephemerides. No evidence of a signal is found from any of the 15 sources. We set 95\% confidence-level upper limits on the intrinsic strain amplitude, with the most stringent constraints reaching $\sim 4 \times 10^{-26}$ near 300 Hz for the nearby source G266.2$-$1.2 (Vela Jr.). We also derive limits on neutron star ellipticity and $r$-mode amplitudes for the same source, with the best constraints reaching $\lesssim 10^{-7}$ and $\lesssim 10^{-5}$, respectively, at frequencies above 400 Hz. These results represent the most sensitive wide-band directed searches for continuous gravitational waves from
An angular analysis of the decay $B^0_s\toφe^+e^-$ is presented, using proton-proton collision data collected with the LHCb detector between 2011 and 2018 at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13$\,\mathrm{Te\kern -0.1em V}$. The combined dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $9\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. Observables are determined by fitting time-integrated projections of the angular distribution in three bins of dielectron mass squared, $q^2$, corresponding to $[0.1,1.1]$, $[1.1,6.0]$ and $[15.0,19.0]\,\mathrm{Ge\kern -0.1em V}^2\!/c^4$. The results are compatible with predictions based on the Standard Model of particle physics.
Measurements of the branching fraction ratio ${\cal{B}(φ\to μ^+ μ^-)/\cal{B}(φ\to e^+e^-)}$ with ${D_{s}^{+} \to π^{+} φ}$ and ${D^{+} \to π^{+} φ}$ decays, denoted $R^{s}_{φπ}$ and $R^{d}_{φπ}$, are presented. The analysis is performed using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4$\,\rm{fb}^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data collected with the LHCb experiment. The branching fractions are normalised with respect to the ${B^{+} \to K^{+} J/ψ(\to e^+e^-)}$ and ${B^{+} \to K^{+} J/ψ(\to μ^+μ^-)}$ decay modes. The combination of the results yields $$ R_{φπ} = 1.022 \pm 0.012 \,({\rm stat}) \, \pm 0.048 \,({\rm syst}). $$ The result is compatible with previous measurements of the $φ\to \ell^{+}\ell^{-}$ branching fractions and predictions based on the Standard Model.
We report on a gravitational wave search for compact binary coalescences involving at least one component with mass between $0.2 M_\odot$ to $1 M_\odot$, and ratio of component masses between 0.1 and 1. The analysis uses data collected by the LIGO detectors between May 24 2023 15:00 UTC and January 16 2024 16:00 UTC. No statistically significant sub-solar mass candidates were identified by the participating search algorithms. We report the detection sensitivity of the current searches to the target sub-solar mass black hole population, while also reporting the sensitivity of the search to low-mass neutron star binaries for the first time. With the absence of detections, we place upper limits on the merger rate of sub-solar mass black holes, ranging from $110$ $\mathrm{Gpc^{-3}yr^{-1}}$ to $10000$ $\mathrm{Gpc^{-3}yr^{-1}}$ at 90% confidence. We use the merger rate limits to constrain two illustrative dark matter scenarios that can form sub-solar mass compact objects: primordial black holes, and dark black holes forming in a dissipative dark matter model. For late-forming primordial black hole binaries, our search excludes the fraction of dark matter in primordial black holes to be
Overpressure from the Blue Origin blast shattered windows at a hangar about a mile away from the pad
Gravitational waves can be gravitationally lensed by massive objects along their path. Depending on the lens mass and the lens--source geometry, this can lead to the observation of a single distorted signal or multiple repeated events with the same frequency evolution. We present the results for gravitational-wave lensing searches on the data from the first part of the fourth LIGO--Virgo--KAGRA observing run (O4a). We search for strongly lensed events in the newly acquired data by (1) searching for an overall phase shift present in an image formed at a saddle point of the lens potential, (2) looking for pairs of detected candidates with consistent frequency evolution, and (3) identifying sub-threshold counterpart candidates to the detected signals. Beyond strong lensing, we also look for lensing-induced distortions in all detected signals using an isolated point-mass model. We do not find evidence for strongly lensed gravitational-wave signals and use this result to constrain the rate of detectable strongly lensed events and the merger rate density of binary black holes at high redshift. In the search for single distorted lensed signals, we find one outlier: GW231123_135430, for wh
A measurement of the CKM angle $γ$ is performed by applying a novel, unbinned, model-independent approach to datasets of electron-positron collisions collected by the BESIII experiment and proton-proton collisions by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 8 fb$^{-1}$ and 9 fb$^{-1}$, respectively. The $C\!P$-violating phase $γ$ is determined from ${B^{\pm}\rightarrow D(\rightarrow K_{\rm S}^{0} h^{\prime+}h^{\prime-}) h^{\pm}}$ decays in LHCb data, where $h^{(\prime)}$ is either a pion or kaon, while the corresponding strong-phase parameters are measured using doubly tagged ${D\rightarrow K_{\rm S/L}^0 h^{\prime+} h^{\prime-}}$ decays in the quantum-correlated $D\overline{D}$ system present in BESIII data. A joint fit to both datasets, which allows for a simultaneous determination of the associated $C\!P$-violating observables and strong-phase parameters, yields ${γ= (71.3\pm 5.0)^{\circ}}$. The result is the most precise to date and consistent with previous measurements and world averages.